Posted on June 3, 2025
edogawa ranpo’s shonen tanteidan/boy detective club book covers
during the pandemic, I took it upon myself to start reading as many japanese mystery novels as I could get my hands on – I won’t go into any of the details on authors or genre distinctions here (for now!!! another time!) but something I’ve become fascinated with is edogawa ranpo‘s era of juvenile literature. for a guy mainly known (particularly in the west) for his ero guro nonsense genre books, I am obsessed with the chunk of time where he churned out 26+ of these shonen tanteidan (boy detective club) mystery thrillers for middle grade readers. what gives!! why is no one talking about this!!! but more importantly – the covers I’ve found so far are amazing.
透明怪人 – Invisible Fiend (1951)
怪奇四十面相 –
The Fiend with Forty Faces (1952)
サーカスの怪人 –
Fiend of the Circus (1957)
a whole lotta fiends round these parts…
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